Rassam-paint is a free, basic painting application using GTK2 which comes with tools such as crop, rectangular and free hand selection modes, drawing tools such as pencil, brush, eraser, flood fill. Basic shapes like lines, ellipses and rectangles are also supported.

The program also allows you to zoom in or out, rotate and flip images, and enable or disable transparency.

Information displayed in the status bar includes the image size and cursor coordinates.

The only program I encountered was a freeze when trying to use the text tool, after getting a warning about data corruption.

Install Rassam-paint 1.1 in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and Mint 17

DEB packages are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, as well as pre-compiled binaries. To install Rassam-paint in Ubuntu or Mint you can download the DEB file for your architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) and either double click it or open a terminal and type the command below:

The alternative would be to download the archive which contains the pre-compiled binary, then uncompress it, then run the program. The archive is decompressed in the current directory unless specified otherwise, with no root directory. The unzip package will need to be installed as well (sudo apt-get install unzip).

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/11/rassam-paint-1-1-is-a-simple-painting-program-how-to-install-in-ubuntu-and-mint/feed/0Linux Mint 17 KDE Overview & Screenshotshttp://www.tuxarena.com/2014/07/linux-mint-17-kde-overview-screenshots/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/07/linux-mint-17-kde-overview-screenshots/#commentsThu, 03 Jul 2014 11:33:50 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=4436Linux Mint 17 ‘Qiana’ KDE and Xfce editions were released late last month, just a few weeks after the main editions (Cinnamon and MATE) were put out. This release will have the same lifespan as the distribution which is based on, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, so it will be supported until 2019, for no less than five years.

A particular strategy was also employed for this release of Mint, which will also use the Ubuntu Trusty Tahr as a base for the upcoming releases as well. According to the Mint 17 Cinnamon announcement:

LTS strategy

Linux Mint 17 will receive security updates until 2019.

Until 2016, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 17, making it trivial for people to upgrade.

Until 2016, the development team won’t start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.

Let’s proceed and have a quick look at how Mint 17 looks like. After applying the updates, Mint 17 KDE comes with Linux Kernel 3.13.0, KDE 4.13.1 and Firefox 30. Considering that the latest stable KDE SC release is 4.13.2, this means this release comes with pretty much bleeding edge components.

Mint 17 KDE comes with KDE 4.13.1:

This is how Mint 17 KDE looks like at first start:

The welcome screen contains helpful links on the Mint website, like the manual or the forums.

As we are already used, the desktop in the KDE edition of Mint uses by default the folder view widget for the whole desktop, meaning you have a classic desktop where you can start adding shortcuts and files. However, you can still start adding widgets, while at the same time keeping the classic desktop active.

Here’s how the folder view looks like:

While adding widgets and keeping the classic desktop is possible too:

Some of the included applications

Dolphin, the file manager:

Konsole, the terminal emulator:

Mint comes with both Synaptic Package Manager and the mintInstall Software Manager applications for installing software:

Except for the Ubuntu Trusty repositories, Mint comes with its own repositories and an extras section as well. Applications like Opera, Google Earth or the 0 A.D. strategy game can be installed without adding any repositories, however Google Chrome is not available by default.

Still, PPAs or backports repositories can be easily added via the Software Manager graphical tool or manually in command-line, which will allow access to the latest versions of all the other packages one may need.

Adding the digiKam 4.1.0 PPA using the Software Manager:

This release also features an improved graphical update manager, reworked driver manager and a refined MDM login screen.

For the KDE lovers out there, Mint 17 ‘Qiana’ KDE edition is definitely worth trying. The 5-year long-term support, combined with a bleeding edge, yet well-tested KDE release is surely one of the best choices users of this desktop environment have at the moment.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/07/linux-mint-17-kde-overview-screenshots/feed/0MakuluLinux Interview: Lead Developer Jaque Raymer Talks About Makuluhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/makululinux-interview-lead-developer-jaque-maymer-talks-about-makulu/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/makululinux-interview-lead-developer-jaque-maymer-talks-about-makulu/#commentsTue, 15 Apr 2014 10:25:45 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=4244After looking at the latest edition of MakuluLinux, which comes with MATE 1.8 and looks awesome, we decided to ask Jaque Raymer, the lead developer of Makulu, a few questions regarding this new, customizable distribution which employs a new direction, making it stand out compared to other distributions.

Hello there Jaque, how are you?
I am well thank you, and thank you for contacting me, it is my pleasure to respond to you.

What is MakuluLinux, and what distro is it based on?
MakuluLinux is a variety of Desktop environments based on Debian, specifically the Testing branch which allows the user to receive core updates on a rolling release basis which makes the distro a long term based installation, therefore the user can install with the knowledge that he need not have to worry about re-installing anytime soon.

All right, what is new or different compared to other distributions? What can you tell us about the feature which allows the user to install only the packages he wants?
Linux used to be all about functionality, stability and flexibility, the ability to make your desktop look and feel exactly how you want it to be, and at the same time you know you are using a very stable and secure system. But times change and users still want all of those things, but now they also want eye candy, they want the “wow” factor, it is not enough anymore to simply make a good stable desktop environment. Most users don’t run 486 computers anymore, its all core i5 and i7’s and they want to push the hardware, they want the wobbly windows, the beautiful backgrounds… Yet at the same time you have to cater for the users that still run the older hardware. Makulu 6 series caters for both worlds, users can run the Mate distro with all the bells and whistles, or turn it all off with a simple click, strip down the system to minimal software, switch off the animation, beautiful borders, wallpaper changer, dock bar and so forth all with a few clicks and Makulu offers this in the new 6 series, most of these features will be ported to our other Desktops as well.

The other factor to consider is the learning curve of Linux, new users don’t want to spend a week figuring out how to do this or that via a terminal. The days of using only terminal in Linux are numbered, Linux is moving more and more to GUI, and MakuluLinux 6 series offers much more GUI presence than ever before. The user can now search the repositories without having to open the software or package manager, install and remove software without having to type “apt-get install”, and thus the learning curve is slightly easier, the terminal will always have a place in Linux, it just won’t be used for every little thing anymore.

Lastly, you also have to remember that in the past it was simply Windows vs Linux vs Mac, now it’s BSD, Google OS, Android etc… So you have to step up your game, the user wants and needs to feel good about his operating system, and with Windows making a lot of bad choices with windows 7, 8 and 8.1 it is pushing more and more people to seek alternatives… So you don’t just build your distros to cater for long time Linux users anymore… It is all about taking a step back and looking from outside the bubble and identifying what is needed and how you can go about implementing it; the moment a developer does that, that is when progress is made.

Can users try MakuluLinux, is there a Live CD?
All the distributions we put out have a live environment, You can simply boot the ISO straight into live mode, should you wish to install it you can simply launch the live installer from Desktop.

Who works on Makulu? Are you doing this all by yourself?
No, I do the physical work myself yes, but i do have a lot of assistance from the OLC group, I also have 6 testers that assist me greatly with development and Cooter keeps an eye on the forums. Prior to Linux I worked on various projects in the gaming world and picked up quite a variety of skills that has greatly been handy with Makulu, it has allowed me the luxury to forego having to rely on third party developers. But at some point I would obviously have to expand the team or I will burn myself out, but I am not quite there yet.

What flavors (desktop environments) are you using?
Me Personally ? I use Xfce, Mate, E17, KDE, Gnome and I have a copy of Windows (I use it for work related purposes only). MakuluLinux currently offers Xfce, Mate, KDE and E17, however I am looking to include another DE at some point.

What about repositories? It looks like you’re including by default a bunch of custom repositories for various apps too.

In the past Makulu did not have its own repository and as such relied on other repositories, but as of the 5 series we have our own repository, and slowly we are limiting the number of other repos we include by default. Everything is there for a reason, it is not just a bunch of random repos slapped together. All the custom not so popular software we offer are available in the Makulu Repository.

So what is the basic vision behind Makulu? What are your goals for Makulu and why are you doing this?
I can write a book on this question… At the moment I am still finding my feet and learning as I go, there is no such thing as a Master Piece that was ever made in a day or even a year, its a long term process and goals / vision changes and grows with time. Right now I am happy with knowing that I am contributing to community in mostly a positive way. I am happy with the current direction of the project, I will allow it to grow at its own pace and when the time comes for bigger things I will base my goals / vision on the data available at that point. Personally, I would love to build my own desktop environment from scratch at some point, I have a lot of ideas for something new and special, and hopefully one day I will get that opportunity, but I am still a long way off from that. For now, I can say that I will do my utmost best to continue making Makulu stand out, I will continue to push my own boundaries and limitations and as I learn and grow in skills It will hopefully show in my work.

What about community? Are you still working on establishing a user base? What role does the community play in Makulu?
MakuluLinux is growing steadily at its own pace, we are seeing an increase in users everyday, it is also driven by its user-base, therefore the users steer the direction of the releases. We gather info via email, blog posts, surveys, chat rooms, forums etc and then take all of that info and make decisions based on the feedback. Obviously I have my own goals and agenda that I incorporate with the feedback.

Why Kingsoft Office?
Why not? To me Kingsoft is the obvious choice, Linux is not only about existing users anymore, 51% of my downloads are Windows users, and Kingsoft office is much easier to use and learn than LibreOffice from a Windows user point of view, not to mention that it is compatible with MS Office straight out of the box and this will appeal to ex-Windows users greatly.

Where does the name come from? Google seems to leave me clueless.
Makulu (pronounced “Ma coo loo”) in the Zulu Language means “Big chief” or “big Mamma”, depending on the context used, and this fits perfectly with our style, we always make sure we stand out from everyone else. The hippo being one of the biggest animals in Africa fits well with the Name, and let’s face it, who does not like hippos?

Thank you for answering our questions, Jaque, and good luck in the future development of Makulu!
Thank you, and I would highly recommend you run the new Mate distro for a few days and unlock all the mysteries and secrets it holds, there is a lot more to it than just what you see in the live environment…

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/makululinux-interview-lead-developer-jaque-maymer-talks-about-makulu/feed/4Tips on How to Start Learning Linuxhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/tips-on-how-to-start-learning-linux/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/tips-on-how-to-start-learning-linux/#commentsTue, 01 Apr 2014 11:50:07 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=3492I think Linux users can basically be divided into average users and users who will put time into learning, who are passionate about Linux and eventually are amateur or professional programmers. The average users only want their software to work, and will use the system to accomplish various tasks and not bother with the way things work since they will not need this information. Over the years the ease of use of Linux has advanced considerably, to the point where everything works neatly out of the box, and for the users who only need to use it for basic stuff like web surfing, listening to movies or graphics, there are distributions like Ubuntu or Mint to satisfy their needs. Which is great, since a computer is first a tool, intended to help you do something with it, from a spreadsheet to an advanced graphics or CAD project, for example. The other category includes all the knowledge-hungry guys who usually want to learn more as they advance, who will dig into tutorials, read books, test and experiment.

Of course, most of the time, especially when you need to solve the task at hand in a timely fashion, you will usually just find the quickest way that works, and probably not bother on how exactly does it work. These tips are for beginners, but mostly for those who like Linux as a whole and like to sacrifice some of their own time to go on a path of constant learning how it works.

First, read the introductory tutorials: Read the documentation of your distribution, articles over the Internet about the basics on how it works, what programs does it offer, learn how to install software using the package manager, and start learning how to use the most basic terminal commands, how to make directories, edit files, navigate through the directory structure. Learn what are the standard folders on Linux, what is their purpose. Later you will need to become proficient in shell scripting, since most tasks make your work easier if implemented as automated scripts.

Get real time help on IRC: I find Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to be an invaluable resource when having difficulties in understanding something or when you are in a rush and need a quick answer to accomplish some task. Usually the Linux projects have channels on Freenode and OFTC, and channels like #ubuntu, #debian or #bash can be very helpful. You can as well find help for programming languages, distro-specific questions or just discuss everything Linux on channels such as #ubuntuforums.

Post questions on the forums: The online forums are also very helpful. Each distribution out there has a very large community, part of which is active on the distribution’s forums. For example, Ubuntu Forums is a great place to ask questions, and usually no such question remains unanswered, and moreover, in a timely fashion.

Read the manpages: Although at first a bit hard on the new Linux user, manpages have all the information regarding the usage of a certain tool. They usually contain a description of what the software does, examples on how to use it, as well as all the command-line arguments that can be used. For standard C functions for example, the manpage will show the definition of a function, a description on what it does, possible return values and eventually, some usage examples.

Read the community news websites: Specialized websites in the Linux news domain are a great way to keep yourself up to date, and also to learn new (even if random) stuff. Among the news there are also tutorials featured on these websites, ranging from how to use the command-line and up to how to conquer your desktop using some new, bleeding edge feature. Websites like LXer, Linux Today or OMG! Ubuntu! are among my top recommendations here. But you can also have a look at TuxRadar for example, or the reddit channels for various Linux topics.

Listen to podcasts: Podcasts are live radio streams which you can listen to. MintCast comes to mind first here.

Read technical Linux books: These are probably the most powerful and reliable source of information. You can start by reading some introductory book which will only cover the basics of the command-line and Linux, and will explain in detail the desktop interface of a particular Linux distribution. However, once you advance, there are books which cover shell scripting in detail, programming, system administration, or the Linux kernel intrinsics. Although maybe you’ll never have anything to do with the kernel directly for example, even if you make programs for Linux, knowing the basics of how it works can’t hurt.

Read tutorials: There is a great number of tutorials on various websites, written by Linux professionals. For example some documents at TLDP talk about shell scripting in detail, or Perl programming, or the Linux kernel.

Google is your friend: Even if this seems so old, the truth is if you’re looking for an answer on how to do something, there is at least half chance to find your answer by searching for it on Google. Questions have usually been asked before, on forums, mailing lists, specialized websites (if you’re a programmer, you may find StackOverflow very helpful).

Read the application documentation: You need to do something with a certain program or tool? First try to find help in the application’s help system, which may have a section dedicated to exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, do you need to embed your graphical program in the system tray but the configuration has no option, try to see if the command-line arguments provide it, before searching and finding out you can do it with some other program.

As a conclusion though, be careful with commands taken from various websites or IRC. Even if you’re in a hurry, just stand back for a while and have a look at the source of information, the command-liner which you’re pasting in your terminal or the script that you are about to run. See if it looks safe before using it. Usually there is no malicious advice out there, but certain commands may still be harmful in your environment, even though they’re not intended to be so. For example, do you need to batch rename a collection of 1000 files? First, copy 3-4 files in a new directory and test your script there instead of running some command which, although for another user works well, on your system may have a different result depending on your setup.

So, what are your tips on what is the best way on starting and getting better with Linux? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/04/tips-on-how-to-start-learning-linux/feed/0QuiteRSS 0.15.1 Releasedhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/quiterss-0-15-1-released/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/quiterss-0-15-1-released/#commentsFri, 07 Mar 2014 19:12:08 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=3047Yesterday QuiteRSS 0.15.0 was released with a great number of changes and fixes, while today a new bugfix release, 0.15.1, was put out.

QuiteRSS is a feature-rich RSS/Atom news reader written in Qt, with system tray integration, tab support, tags, tree-like organization of feeds and plenty configuration options.

QuiteRSS 0.15.0 brings many features, especially making it more usable when browsing, the most notable being:

Adblock integration

support for feeds with local path

new notifications

mark all feeds read option in the system tray menu

show close button on tabs

visual tweaks

several bug fixes

Currently the PPA for Ubuntu contains QuiteRSS 0.15.0. To install it in Ubuntu 13.10, run the following commands in a terminal:

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/quiterss-0-15-1-released/feed/0Early Look at How Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Is Shaping Uphttp://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/early-look-at-how-ubuntu-14-04-trusty-is-shaping-up/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/early-look-at-how-ubuntu-14-04-trusty-is-shaping-up/#commentsFri, 07 Mar 2014 16:29:49 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=3007The next Ubuntu Long-Term Release, codenamed Trusty Tahr, will be released on April 17th, 2014 and will ship with several notable features, while mainly focusing on stable main components rather than bleeding-edge software, a very good decision which fits perfectly such a big release. Trusty will be supported for five years on both the desktop and the server. I must say, this is a long awaited release, and probably not only by Ubuntu users, but also the ones of Mint and other distributions based upon Ubuntu, since the upcoming Mint 17 will be based on Trusty. I’m really expecting a solid experience here, which could last for years as a main desktop and development machine.

This is just an overview of the most notable features, I will dedicate a more through review when the final release comes out.

The beginning of this year saw a few important announcements for Ubuntu, like the new partnership deals with mobile phone manufacturers bq and Meizu. In the meantime, Trusty, which is the next long-term release, is shaping up pretty well. Currently in feature freeze, Ubuntu 14.04 looks very well, and I can tell the same about Kubuntu, which ships with KDE 4.12.3.

This is how Ubuntu currently looks from a daily image with all the updates to date:

At first glance, nothing new up to now. We have the usual left launcher with the shortcuts to Dash, files, web browser, office suite, Amazon integration and Ubuntu One services.

However, under the hood, Trusty has some new neat features that are looking good. So, let’s have a look at the most important changes visible in Trusty so far.

Locally Integrated Menus
Regarding the interface, one of the big changes is the comeback of the menus inside applications, instead of globally in the top panel. These menus are called Locally Integrated Menus, and they take up the horizontal space of the title bar, therefore not eating up more vertical space, a good decision from which widescreens will benefit.

To enable locally integrated menus, open System Settings from the left panel launcher, go to Appearance and click on the Behavior tab. Now in the Application Menu section, tick the In window title bars option.

Enabling the locally integrated menus:

New Wallpapers
A community wallpaper contest is already underway, and a selection of new wallpapers will ship in Trusty by default.

Grub looks like its also going to see a new version in Trusty Tahr, namely Grub 2.02 Beta 2.

And there are good news for the fans of MATE, a desktop environment created by the Linux Mint team which resembles the old GNOME 2 interface. MATE DE 1.6.2 will be shipped in Ubuntu’s repositories.

Gedit, the GNOME text editor, also benefits from a new visual interface:

Window decorations can be stylized using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), improving on the visual HTML/CSS integration in GTK3. A tutorial on how to do this will follow shortly.

Also, the System Settings received an option to show or hide the username of the current user.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/early-look-at-how-ubuntu-14-04-trusty-is-shaping-up/feed/1Krita 2.8.0 Milestone Release, Steam [Ubuntu Installation]http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/krita-2-8-0-milestone-release-steam-ubuntu-installation/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/krita-2-8-0-milestone-release-steam-ubuntu-installation/#commentsWed, 05 Mar 2014 18:18:02 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=3013Krita 2.8.0 was released yesterday, and this version comes with quite a big list of changes. In addition to the new features that were implemented, Krita is also available for Windows with an installer available from here.

Krita is part of the Calligra suite, an office suite for the KDE desktop. It is a powerful image editor and manipulation tool, with support for filters, layers, a bunch of drawing tools with presets, and a bunch of other useful tools.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2014/03/krita-2-8-0-milestone-release-steam-ubuntu-installation/feed/0Debian Tip: Enable APT Auto-Completionhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2013/05/debian-tip-enable-apt-auto-completion/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/05/debian-tip-enable-apt-auto-completion/#commentsSat, 11 May 2013 13:33:55 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=2283You can enable TAB auto-completion for APT packages in Debian easily. As root, edit the /root/.bashrc file and add the following line at the end:

source /etc/bash_completion

Exit your Bash session and open a new one and it should work now (or you can source this file again using source /root/.bashrc, just make sure you are doing all this with root privileges.)

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/05/debian-tip-enable-apt-auto-completion/feed/0NeonView 0.8.1 Releasedhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/neonview-0-8-1-released/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/neonview-0-8-1-released/#commentsThu, 28 Feb 2013 18:34:34 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=2171This new release fixes many bugs and adds some functionality improvements. Have a look at the announcement, or download it from here.

NeonView is a minimalist image viewer for Linux, created by TuxArena and written in C and GTK+ 3.

Below is a screenshot of NeonView in GNOME 3:

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/neonview-0-8-1-released/feed/0Counter-Strike Available on Steam for Linuxhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/counter-strike-available-on-steam-for-linux/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/counter-strike-available-on-steam-for-linux/#commentsSat, 09 Feb 2013 16:58:17 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=2147I was pretty reluctant in trying Steam on Linux ever since it was made available, but what made me install it was that Counter-Strike is now available on Linux via Steam too. I used to play this a lot a few years back and CS for Steam was put out on February 6. So I bought the Counter-Strike Anthology pack during this weekend deal and decided to give it a try.

Installing Counter-Strike

After downloading and installing the game, this can be found inside the ~/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common directory.

This is a beta version, and it looks pretty good. I could notice that the main menu is capped at a certain resolution compared to the usual version for Windows, but the game itself seems to use whatever resolution specified by the user. As always, I’m glad to see games ported to native Linux. There was, however, a significant drop in FPS compared to the Windows version, but that may be because of the Intel drivers.

The server browser seems to work OK:

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2013/02/counter-strike-available-on-steam-for-linux/feed/0Tutorial: How to Color Man Pages & How It Workshttp://www.tuxarena.com/2012/04/tutorial-colored-man-pages-how-it-works/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/04/tutorial-colored-man-pages-how-it-works/#commentsSun, 01 Apr 2012 16:08:05 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=2066In this tutorial I’ll show how to get some nicely colored man pages by adding several lines inside the .bashrc file, explaining what the code means and how it works.

Except for the eye-candy, colors may help when it comes to clarity, although some prefer the default monochrome approach. At the start of this article there is the actual code which can be copied and pasted inside the ~/.bashrc file, and which can be modified depending on each person’s preferences. If you don’t care about what it does you can just insert it in ~/.bashrc, restart your terminal and start reading some man pages to see how it looks (e.g. man man). After this part I tried to explain how this code works and how to modify it in order to get new ‘themes’.

The code

For this tutorial we’ll be editing the ~/.bashrc file, which is a hidden file located in your home directory which gets read each time a new Bash instance starts up. Bash reads all the commands found in this file and executes them (hence the rc part, which stands for run commands).

We will edit this file and add some lines which specify certain colors for the $LESS_TERMCAP variables.

Don’t forget to reset your terminal after entering this code in order for the changes to take effect, e.g. type reset or exit and start up another shell.

This will mostly use magenta and cyan as the colors. Next, I’ll explain what these lines mean and how you can modify the colors.

Explaining it

As you can see, there are several variables which are assigned different values. As shown in the comments after the # sign, every one is used when needed. When text is in bold (double-bright mode), the formatting option is set to bold and the color magenta.

the environment variable LESS_TERMCAP_md will be assigned the value to the right of the equal sign

the right side says execute the command between the $( and ) characters, just like the older ` ` did

printf is a command similar with C’s printf and means “print with format”. The characters between the double quotes specify a color and a font style (e.g. in this case, bold and magenta).

The part that is inside the double quotes are format specifiers like bold, regular, or color to be used. More on these can be found on Wikipedia, here.

Color codes

The color codes are as follows:

30 – black

31 – red

32 – green

33 – orange

34 – blue

35 – magenta

36 – cyan

37 – white

Some other escape codes which you could use include:

0 – reset/normal

1 – bold

3 – italic/reversed

4 – underlined

5 – blink

You can check this by typing in a terminal something like:

printf ‘\e[31m’
printf ‘\e[32m’
printf ‘\e[37m’

So, if we have something like printf ‘\e[01;33m’ it means enter bold and color yellow, according to the listing above.

What about ‘export’?

export is a Bash built-in used to assign values to variables in such a manner that any subsequent application that runs in that shell will be aware of the variable’s value. If, for example, we would simply assign a value to a variable, say MYVAR=”this is my variable” and we would then issue echo $MYVAR, we would see that the variable’s value will be printed. However, try to make a simple script which would echo it, for example:

#!/bin/bash

echo $MYVAR

And then run it e.g. bash myscript.sh – you will see that the value is lost, not visible in the script. So this is where export is useful, because it will make any further script or application “see” the variable. When we invoke the man command, it will need to see the values for our LESS_TERMCAP variables.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/04/tutorial-colored-man-pages-how-it-works/feed/16Tutorial: Using the ‘find’ Commandhttp://www.tuxarena.com/2012/03/tutorial-using-the-find-command/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/03/tutorial-using-the-find-command/#commentsSat, 31 Mar 2012 16:05:14 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=2040GNU find is a powerful command-line utility that lets you search for files and folders in a hierarchical tree directory structure. It is the backend for all those utilities out there like the graphical searching in KDE or GNOME. However, find can be a little hard to handle at first by beginners. In this tutorial I will try to explain some of the capabilities of find, show some useful one-liners and provide more explanations regarding this command.

In this tutorial I will start from the basic ways of using find and head up into showing more complicated (but very useful) ways of getting the most out of it, in order to search and display exactly the results that you are looking for. The version of find that I currently have installed is 4.4.2, as it comes with Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, and Bash 4.2.20 (older versions should work without problem too). Special thanks go to http://www.commandlinefu.com/ for some really great one-liners.

This will list all the files and folders (including hidden ones and their sub-files and sub-folders) in the current directory, following the whole hierarchical structure. This will usually generate a long list of files and doesn’t seem to give us much. It’s exactly the same as:

Where . is the currently working directory. This will list all the files and folders in the currently working directory.

It’s probably best to use a new folder somewhere in the file system to see this in effect, a folder which doesn’t have many sub-folders and files.

Moving on, let’s search for all the files that include the name profile in their filename:

* is a wildcard that replaces any number of characters or no character. The above command searches in the current folder for the name *profile*.

This will search inside /usr/share for all the files that start with FreeSans (and end in whatever characters e.g. FreeSans.ttf). I recommend using double quotes around the pattern to search for e.g. find . -name “.bash*”.

Another example:

So now you know how to search for a certain filename in a specific location.

Uppercase/Lowercase

Sometimes you need to ignore uppercase and lowercase and just search for text by ignoring case-sensitive. We’ll to this just by replacing -name with -iname:

Date

This will search for files that were created earlier than 3 days ago.

Get only the filename instead of whole path to the file

find will return the whole path to the files that match the search pattern, so in order to get only the filename you can use the printf argument:

To get only the filename, use:

By size

To search for files by size, use the -size argument, for example:

This will search inside /usr for files which are equal to or larger than 500 KB and are ending in png. Another example:

Which will search for files which are bigger than 1 MB in size. Instead of the plus sign, you could use minus in order to search for files that are smaller than a specified size:

The -10c specifier tells find to only display files which are smaller than 10 bytes. Don’t forget the + or – preceding the desired filesize.

Automatically list details about the found files

You could use a pipe and the xargs command for this:

Notice that this will list the files in the current directory if find returns no file.

Searching for files than contain specific text

This is probably one of the most useful ways to search for some file which name you’ve forgot but you know some of the text it contains inside.

This will search in all the files that contain the patter bash for the word aliases. Those files that contain this pattern will be printed out.

]]>http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/03/tutorial-using-the-find-command/feed/60 A.D. Alpha 9 Review and Ubuntu Installation | Screenshotshttp://www.tuxarena.com/2012/03/0-a-d-alpha-9-review-and-ubuntu-installation-overview-screenshots/
http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/03/0-a-d-alpha-9-review-and-ubuntu-installation-overview-screenshots/#commentsSat, 31 Mar 2012 09:04:53 +0000http://www.tuxarena.com/?p=19990 A.D. is a strategy game that has been around for quite some time now, and it reached a decent level of completeness despite the fact that Wildfire Games are releasing only alpha versions. It’s free, open-source and available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and the latest alpha, codenamed ‘Ides of March’, comes with a whole bunch of new features and fixes.

The game resembles an ancient warfare universe, much in the way Age of Empires series did. The new key features in this version include (from the changelog on the official website):

a new, complete faction called Roman Republic, which comes with a new art set for buildings, units and ships

a new combat system adding bonuses and weaknesses to units

a new trading system, which allows you to choose which resource to be gained by a trader, available on both water and over land

new random map scripts

new animations for several ships, units and animals

new AI improvements, including including a serious bug fix and performance increases

four new music tracks and a re-done track

many other bug fixes and minor features

Features & Gameplay
The game comes with 3D graphics using OpenGL, allowing you to zoom in/out and to rotate the image. After starting a new game only few options can be configured though, like enabling or disabling shadows, water reflections or the music. 0 A.D. features both single player and multiplayer, with the single player mode offering a skirmish-like mode, no campaigns being available at the current time. In single player you will fight versus qBot, the default A.I. used by the game. A scenario editor which can be started in-game via the Options menu is also available.

Main menu

The multiplayer mode features direct connection only, there doesn’t seem to be an Internet server, so you can either host a game or connect to another game by specifying the machine’s IP.

Starting a single player game

It can be ran in fullscreen mode or windowed mode using Alt+Enter to switch between them.

0 A.D. features a lot of maps, several factions like the new Roman Republic, Iberians, Celts or Hellenes, combat units, buildings for training new units and technologies, a trading system, and naval ships.

The gameplay is pretty much similar to the one of Age of Empires in that you gather food, stone, gold and wood, expand and upgrade your buildings and units, build up a strong army and defeat your opponent.

Currently 0 A.D. doesn’t offer configuration options like changing the resolution, configuring keyboard shortcuts or changing the sound/music volumes. The available hotkeys are listed here.

You can use Alt+Enter to toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode, or F2 to take a screenshot in PNG format.

Installation
Instructions for installing 0 A.D. in various Linux distributions can be found here. To install 0 A.D. in Ubuntu you can use the repositories provided by the official project by issuing the following commands in a terminal: